The title of this lesson is this, Until Christ Be Formed
in You. So Paul writes to the Galatians. We'll see this at the end of
the lesson. I'm going to start in verse 12. We left off in verse
11 last week. But until Christ be formed in
you. You know, this is one of the
things that causes us to differ from all other religions. All
other religions are trying to follow rules, regulations, trying
to please the God of their imagination, but the true religion, and there
is a true religion, and it's of God. It's concerning His Son. And it has to do with Christ
in you. We're not just trying to follow
some doctrines, believe some doctrines, and follow the doctrines,
and believe some regulations and rules. God, Almighty God, is really,
literally in you. He's in you. We're not just doing
some things and trying to please Him. It's just He's in you. And
Paul brings this out toward the end of this lesson. He said,
I travail again until Christ is formed in you. And if Christ is in you, that
makes all the difference. That makes all the difference.
So let's look in verse 12 here. Paul says, Brethren, I beseech
you. He uses the most affectionate
language to bring them around. He doesn't beat up on them, although
he has said some things to them that's been tough, because he
said in verse 11, I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed
upon you labor in vain." But after saying that, he turns around
and he says, I beseech you. He uses the language that a father
would use toward a son or daughter. I beseech you. Be as I am. How is that? What is Paul saying? Be as I am. And here's what he's
saying. Be free. from the law of ritualism,
Paul was free from it. Ceremonies, Paul was free from
it. Works, Paul was free from it. He said, you be as I am. You
be free from these things as I am free from these things.
All the law has been fulfilled by Christ. Therefore, we count
all these things as loss. Isn't that what Paul says in
Philippians 3? He said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
and he was very zealous of the law, but then he said, I count
all these things as law for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord. Your doing, our doing, adds nothing. It takes away. It takes away. It doesn't add. It takes away.
And he says here, Be as I am, for I am as you are. And he's
speaking to them about spiritual things. I am as you are. Well, how's that? We are one
in Christ. We are one in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul's a Jew, speaking to Gentiles, but he's saying
to them, You be as I am, for I am as you are. We are one. We are both free in Christ. We're
both free in Christ. We're both loved of Christ. We're
both chosen of Christ. God chose us. Our Lord said this
to his disciples. You didn't choose me. I chose
you. I chose you. You've not injured me at all.
What you're doing is not an injury to me. You haven't injured me. Here's why he's saying, your
offense and what you're doing is offensive to God. Your offense
is against the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who it's against. Remember
when Paul was persecuting the church? He's going down the road
to Damascus and the Lord struck him down. He said, Paul, or he
said, Saul, Saul, why persecute us? Did he say, my church? He said, me. Paul was putting them in jail. I mean, he was just trying to
destroy the church. And the Lord said, Saul, Saul,
by persecuting thou me. And Paul said, you have not injured
me. Your offense is against the Lord. That's a more serious charge. It's against the Lord. And then
he reminds them how he preached the gospel to them. You know,
in verse 13, You know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached
the gospel unto you at the first. Paul was not a healthy man. He was not a healthy man. He
traveled all over the place, and I'm telling you, his travel
was difficult. Our travels, traveling from one place to another, is
not difficult. We travel in comfort. But his was difficult, and he
was sick. He was not a healthy man. You
know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel
to you. When Paul preached the gospel to them the first time,
he did so in much weakness. He did so in much physical weakness
and infirmities. Now, whatever that was, we really
don't know. But it must have been something
that would have caused them to reject him if it were not for
the gospel coming to them In power, when Paul preached the
gospel, it was in demonstration of the Holy Spirit. He said,
Christ has been evidently set forth among you. And when I came
preaching the gospel, I did so in much infirmities, but you
didn't reject me. You didn't despise my infirmities.
Back in that day, especially. If someone had a real bad infirmity
of whatever, or sickness, they were, especially the Gentiles,
they were superstitious. They thought, well, God must
be against this. You know, there's something wrong. This man has
done something wrong. Remember when Paul went on that one island
after that shipwreck and a snake bit him on the hand? They said,
this man must be a murderer. You know, this snake bit him
and he didn't bite anyone else. He must be a murderer. Something
must be wrong here. Isn't that the way we judge things? It's about the way we judge things.
If something happens to a person or a family, they think, oh,
there must be something going on. And Paul says here, you didn't
reject me. You did not reject me. And my
temptation, which was in my flesh, you despise not. Whatever that
trial was, whatever that sickness was, whatever that infirmity
was, he says you didn't despise it, nor reject. You didn't run
me off. You didn't look upon me as if
God were against me. But instead, listen, you received
me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Now this is, he
said, I came preaching the gospel to you in much infirmities, in
much weakness. You didn't despise me. It must have been something that
was just, I don't want to say grotesque, I don't know if it
would go that far with it, but it was something that would make
them reject him. Just like the Jews would reject
a leper. But there was something about Paul, that sickness, that
would cause them to reject and despise him. But he says, you
didn't do that. You received me as an angel of
God. as a messenger of God. That's
how you received me, even as Jesus Christ himself." Now, here's what Paul is doing. He's saying, this is how you
received me. The gospel came to you in power, much power,
and in demonstration of the Spirit. And your reception of me was
great. What's happened? Because it really
cooled off. It really cooled off. He said,
what happened between the time that you received me and I preached
the gospel to you and what's going on now? He said something's
wrong. He's pointing out here something
is wrong and Paul didn't change. The message did not change. The
Galatians had changed. The Judaizers had come in and
they started working them. That's what false preachers do.
They just start working the people. They turn the message. They twist
the message. They put a little twist on it.
It doesn't have to be a big twist. Just a little. You know, when
Satan deceived Eve in the garden, he didn't just totally attack
the Word of God and say it was a lie. He just took it and put
a little twist on it. That's all he did. You put a
little twist on truth and you don't have truth anymore. A little
lie is a whole lie. Truth, the absolute truth, is
just that. There's not one thing about this
that's wrong. There's not one thing about it that's untrue.
You don't have half the truth. They say, well, they told half
the truth. No, they didn't. Half the truth
is a whole lie. That's why he's saying here,
these Judaizers have come in And they've caused you to turn. They've caused you to turn from
Christ alone. They've caused you to start wanting
to do the ceremonies and to go through these things, and it
makes you feel real religious. Something's happened here, and
he's pointing this out. That's why he's pointing it out.
And don't think, and I speak to myself, don't think Now something
like this can't slip in and happen to you or me. We're still in
this flesh. We're still men and women at
best. Saved by the grace of God? Yes.
But I tell you what, if He doesn't keep us, if He doesn't keep our
feet from falling, we'll do just what they did. And He allowed,
God allowed this to happen for our learning. This is for our
learning. God allowed the Galatians to
go through this for you and me to learn from as examples. Now he says in verse 15, where
is then the blessedness you spoke of? Where's that joy? Where's that joy that you demonstrated
when you first heard the gospel of your salvation? Where is it? What happened to that joy and
that blessedness and that rejoicing in Christ alone? See, His blood
alone, His righteousness alone, His person alone, where did that
go? Where did that go? He's taking
them back to the time the gospel was preached to them, that He
preached it to them, and they heard it, and they rejoiced in
it. And they sat around and they
talked about it. You know the conversations they must have
had with Paul during that time he was there with them. Where
is that? He says, where is that? Where's
that blessing that you spoke of? For I bear you record. This is how you thought of me. God's messenger. This is how
you thought of me. That if it had been possible,
You would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me." Paul said, if it were possible,
you would have plucked out your eyes. And this is why some think
that Paul had a real vision problem, this statement here. But he said,
if it were possible, this is how much you thought of me. This
is how much you thought of the message. This is how much you
thought of Christ, that at one time you would have plucked out
your own eyes and given them to me. What has happened? The
gospel hasn't changed. The gospel never changes. The
message never changes. We had a message here a few weeks
ago. Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Now, the message doesn't change.
Christ doesn't change. Now what's that mean? That means
something else has changed. Something about me has changed.
Something I'm listening to has changed. You are what you eat. Believe it or not, you are what
you eat. What happened to that love and
zeal for Christ and his servant? As I was writing this, I thought
about this. This came to my mind. I believe
this is so. I believe that the way we handle
God's servant is a good indication of our spiritual relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a good indication of our
spiritual relationship to Christ, the way we handle his servants,
the way we handle his children. It's a good indication. Am I therefore become your enemy?
Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? What do
you want me to do today? What do you want me to stand
here this morning and do? Tell me the truth. Don't sugarcoat it. Don't be
afraid offending someone that may not believe it. Tell the truth. The only way
you and I can ever believe the truth is to hear the truth. You know, the truth has to be
preached. God is not going to save men and women by lie. That's
just not going to happen. He saves men and women by the
truth, the truth concerning Himself The truth concerning his son,
the truth concerning me. I do want to hear, as hard as
it is, the truth about me. There's no good, no, not one.
That's what the Bible says. I didn't write the Bible. And
that includes me. I wrote out from that verse,
even me. Even me. It says God looked down
from heaven. to see if there was any that
was seeking him. And he said, there's none. He
said, their imagination was evil continually. And you know what? It hasn't changed. Human nature
has not changed. It is what it is. It's what it
is. And he says, have I become your
enemy? Do you count me as your enemy
for telling you the truth? Paul preached Christ to them.
They rejoiced in the gospel. They were so grateful to God
for sending Paul to them that they overlooked his infirmity,
whatever it was, and they treated him as an angel of God. But now
their affections toward him had cooled, and he gives the reason
why the problem. He gives us a hint of the problem
in verse seventeen. They, not us, they. He's speaking of those
Judaizers. Those men who come preaching
works, trying to incorporate the keeping of the law, the ceremonies,
the types. You know, they're trying to incorporate
some of that into Christianity, through Christianity. And he
says they, zealously affect. Now you can write over top of
that word affect, you can write the word court. Court. They're courting you. You know,
I courted Vicki for a year before I married her. I did have an
ulterior motive and that was to marry her. She'd be mine. And he says they have an ulterior
motive. They zealously court you. They're
zealous about this. Now, they're going after you.
So they're coming after you. But it's not well, it's not good.
What they're doing is not good. Their message is not good. Their
message is not of God. He said they zealously affect
you or court you, but not well, yea, they would exclude you.
Now, you can write over that word isolate. They court you and they isolate
you is what they're trying to do. And here's what they're trying
to do. They're trying to isolate you
from me. They were trying to isolate the
church at Glacier and all the other places they would go to.
They were trying to isolate them from the Apostle Paul. If we
can isolate them from him, Then we can court their affections.
We can get them to trust us and they will look to us for guidance,
not Paul. Not the Apostle Paul who preached
the gospel to them. And that's what they're doing.
He said they zealously, vigorously are courting you, but it's not
in a good way. Don't think that because someone
comes in here and slaps you on the back, calls you brother,
just don't think that good is going
to come out of that. Not always. Not always. They would isolate you. They
had an ulterior motive that was to isolate them from Paul and
the gospel. Not just from Paul alone, The
purpose was Paul's message. You see, they isolated them from
Paul. They isolated them from the message
of grace. The gospel of grace. You know the thing about the
gospel, the gospel. We're not trying to isolate anyone.
Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come
in. We preach the gospel to all who will listen. All who will
listen. But it's good, he says, it's
good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. And not
only when I'm present with you. He's not condemning all zeal.
It's good to be zealous over the gospel. I wish, I would to
God I was more zealous. I do. I would to God I was more
zealous than I am. And I would to God that we were
all more zealous than we are. If we could really sit down and
get a real glimpse of what we have in Christ and get a real
glimpse of His glory, we would be saying more often, you've
got to come and hear this. You've got to come and hear this.
I remember this, and this is to my shame. I remember when
I first heard the gospel. I remember distinctly when I
first heard it. I mean, it was like, everybody's
got to hear this. Everybody's got to hear this.
I went and told some people and told the place where I was going
to church. I thought, man, I found that
something here. And I found out they didn't want
it. They didn't like it. But where's that zeal at? I know
we get caught up in living and raising families and this and
that. Satan is so subtle. Satan is
so subtle. Just get him busy. Just get him
busy. Well, his glory is still the
same. Salvation is still the glory of salvation. The person
of Christ is still a glorious person. He said, where did that
zeal go? He said, it's good to be zealously
affected in a good thing. It's good to be zealous over
the glory of God. It's good to be zealous over
the Lord Jesus Christ. Would to God that everyone would
hear Him. We ought to be very zealous over
these things that we have in Christ. And it says, not just
when I'm with you. Not just when I'm with you, but
at all times. At all times. Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Do that every day. And do it
zealously. Do it zealously. My little children. How affectionate, Paul. speaks
to them, my little children. And the reason he calls them
that is because they believe the gospel under his ministry.
He called Timothy his son, but he's talking about his son in
the faith. My little children, of whom I prevail, and he uses
some strong language here that you women can identify with.
You had children? You can identify with what Paul
is saying here. And he's not just throwing out
words here because he's under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
He's saying here, I travail in birth. Speaking of the birth
pain the woman has in giving birth. Speaking of the care that
a woman has while she's pregnant. You're careful. You're careful
you want to deliver a healthy child. You look after that child
not only after it's born, but even before it's born. Your care
is for that child from the moment of conception, isn't it? From
the moment you conceive, and the doctor says you're going
to have a child, you start caring for that child. You're even more
concerned about what you eat and what you do. You're just
so concerned about that. And that's what Paul's saying
here. He said, my little children of whom I prevail, my care for
you is great. Oh, to have a pastor like that. We had a pastor like that, didn't
we? We have a pastor like that. He still prays for us. I get
letters from him praying for you and your family. I prevail. and birth again to
Christ be formed in you." Here's the difference. Here's the difference
from all other religions. Christ in you. I'm looking at
some people who are possessed. You are possessed of God. You are possessed of God. is Jesus Christ in you. Look in verse 6. We looked at
this last week. And this was such a blessing
to me last week when I read this. Because ye are sons, because
God has chosen you, adopted you, because you are sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Father, father, or papa, papa.
This is the difference. Our God is not far off. He's not in some distant land. Was it Elisha who mocked those
men? He said, well, cry louder. Maybe your God's off in the distance
somewhere. Shout a little louder so he can
hear you. Maybe he's off somewhere and you've got to get his attention. The gospel is Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Eternal life is not in do's and
it's not in don'ts. It's not in the ceremonies. It's
not in the rituals. It's in the Son of God, in our
union to Him. I desire, he says, to be present
with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of
you. The fruit doesn't match the tree. If there's fruit on a tree, don't
you think they're going to match? I mean, you've got an apple tree.
That's what I'm saying. I've got an apple tree. There's going
to be apples on that tree, right? He said, the way you're conducting
yourself, what's going on, what I'm hearing, doesn't match. Your walk, your
talk, and your conduct doesn't match the one you believe. That's what he's saying. He said,
I stand in doubt because what you're doing is totally inconsistent
with the gospel you believe. Paul wanted to be present with
them and talk to them face to face. When a person who has confessed
Christ becomes taken up with other things besides Christ,
it becomes very concerning to God's servant. When the fruit of the Spirit,
I thought of this last night, when the fruit of the Spirit
is not on the tree It's very troubling. It's very troubling.
Paul says, I prevail in birth. I prevail in pain until Christ
be formed in you. He didn't give up on them, did
he? You don't give up on your children. That's it. I mean, that's salvation. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's it.